The Baking Bible

Readers expect perfection from Beranbaum (Rose's Heavenly Cakes; The Cake Bible), whose award-winning cookbooks are known for their foolproof recipes and rigorous testing and development. Her tenth cookbook—a timeless collection of all-new cakes, pastries, cookies, candies, and breads—blends American and European traditions and thoroughly explains the hows and whys of baking through commandmentlike "golden rules" and meticulous instructions. Novice bakers can start out with easy choices (blueberry buckle) and work their way up to more complex recipes (prune preserves and caramel cream cake roll) that can have as many as five homemade components. Like Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions, the book contains some unique desserts (pomegranate winter chiffon meringue pie) that won't be found elsewhere. The ingredient glossary, equipment list, resources, and appendixes are excellent.